Law of damages

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Transcript of Law of damages

General Damages interim awards An interim award is when the payment is given before the decision is made. The defendant can provide this payment. The claimant can make an application for an interim payment at any time. Law of damages You can claim for: Special Damages Special damage includes quantifiable financial losses up to the date of trial and it’s measured separately from other awards, this is because the exact amount to be claimed is known at the time of the trial.

There are three types of special damages which are: loss of earning, medical expenses and expenses to cover special facilities. Loss of earning is calculated from the harm caused. A medical expense covers treatment, medical appliances or the unpaid services of relatives or friends. Some expenses that are considered reasonable by the court are recoverable. Expenses to cover special facilities this means that it can over the cost of special living accommodation and its measure of damages here is the sum spent to obtain the special facility and it also covers running costs. Damages are the compensation that you will be awarded if damage was as a result of the negligence. The aim of the damages is to put the person in the position they would have been in if the harm not occurred. The case which set up this rules is Robinson V Harman 1848. The damages are mainly financial. • Living cost• Medical expenses • Future loss of earning• Pain and suffering • Compensation if the injury gets worse • Loss of earnings • Not being able to enjoy life Non-pecuniary losses There are many different Damages such as special damages, general damages, structured settlements, interim awards, offsets, contributory negligence, pecuniary damages and non-pecuniary damages. General damages are the damages that are harder to decide the amount for e.g pain and suffering. General damages cover all losses which are not capable of exact quantification. General damages are divided into pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages.

Pecuniary means future loss of earning. The court calculates future loss of earning by using the multiplicand. This means that the claimant`s earning will be calculated to represent the lost of earning per a year. The multiplier is arbitrary can`t be precise and it is calculated by looking the previous cases. Even in the cases of a young wage earner, the maximum multiplier used is 18 because its intended to take account the possibility that the claimant might loss the job or even retire early

The victims of the accident often receive financial support from several sources in the addition to tort damages for example security benefits, sick and private insurance.

There are other rules of aspects of future loss such as the claimant is entitled to an award to cover the cost of future care. Depending on the injury they might be allowed to have nursing requirements and physiotherapy. Non-pecuniary damage are for pain and suffering which the court can decide the amount to give but it can be difficult. There are three types of non-pecuniary losses which are pain and suffering, loss of amenity and damages for injury itself.

Compensation for pain and suffering is difficult to calculate in terms of money but an award will be made to cover nervous shock and physical pain and suffering. It’s important to achieve consistency between the awards made to different claimants who suffered similar injuries.

Loss of amenity is that the claimant is entitled to damages for the inability to enjoy life in various way. The claimant`s senses might be stopped for example running, walking even playing sports still will stop them from enjoying life.

Damages for injury itself are that different types of injury will get different type of Compensation. Contributory Negligence Offsets are claim or demands that might be reduced or even cancel given claim offsets Contributory negligence is when the claimant makes a claim but the amount of money will be reduced depending on the injury and extent to which the claimant contributed to the injury. Case example of where Contributory negligence was used in is Sayers v Harlow. Structured Settlements A Structured settlement is where the claimant receives the money awarded bit by bit rather than getting the all the money in one go. The result is lower payment by insurers and higher income for claimants.